The Mable Experience

My biggest challenge in life has just turned two and it made me reflect. So lets go back to when I made the decision to start this journey.

I’ve always been around animals. Truth is, I prefer them to most people. People are noise, opinion and complication but animals are simple. Give them what they need and they will love you and I need that consistent love. Pet owner is a selfish act in my mind because you become their world. I had just lost a beloved cat to an accident. My heart was shattered and I knew I needed something to love and that would love me. It’s necessary for my mental health. To this day, I believe that my cat, Alfie was put on earth to re-open my heart. So I made the choice to do something I’d always wanted to do. To train my own assistance dog.

Determined to make the most responsible and educated choice I could. I had researched this option a few years ago, spoken to a few dog trainers and rescuers and I knew the best option for this role was a spaniel puppy. I had some experience with spaniels as family dogs, Cavalier King Charles spaniels specifically. Wonderful dogs but they are slightly smaller and have a shorter lifespan than other spaniels. I’m an electric wheelchair user these days so I need solid and reliable. I decided that I would prefer a Cocker Spaniel.

I’m going to reiterate here that I wasn’t in a hurry to do this. My focus was on getting the best puppy I could, to ensure our success. I had purchased animal through Gumtree before and it was successful so I thought i’d check what the going price of Cocker Spaniel puppies were so that I could start putting the money aside. That’s when fate played it’s hand.

Years before i’d had to re-home a dog due to a bad housing situation. So I knew the issues i’d had previously with training a puppy and the major ones were toilet training and separation anxiety. this is why I was prepared to wait until I had a plan to deal with this. I begin to scroll through the ads and there are a couple of litters of spaniels. Beautiful, without doubt but I wasn’t ready. Then an ad catches my eye. a ruby coloured, 16 week puppy needing rehomed. I click on the add and read the story. The family are unable to keep the puppy due to allergy. They’ve started crate training her and toilet training.

I will tell you now that I believe in messages from the universe. Rightly or wrongly. At that time, however, I resisted. I wasn’t ready. A few days later I go back onto the app to get more information and I see that the ruby puppy hasn’t been sold. The price reduced because the family are desperate. I’m intrigued, so I start a conversation with the family. This puppy seems perfect but it’s far away, I resist again but speaking to a friend I get convinced. They agree that the puppy seems perfect and offer to give me a lift to collect it. The family selling the puppy are keen for me to take it.

Sometimes in life, things happen when they are supposed to, not when you’re ready for them. So this was a moment of crazy bravery and selfishness on my part. A couple of days later, I’m sitting in a friends car with the puppy sleeping on my knee.

I didn’t share the news for a few days. I wanted to be sure I could manage before telling the world about my decision. Knowing that well meaning friends and family members, would rightly question things. It wasn’t easy or fun to be honest and if I knew how my life would change. I’d have waited.

Doing things by myself is always a struggle, I was tested to my maximum in this and it’s only now that I realise that I was lucky. Lucky that when I asked for help, I got it and lucky that Mable is a great dog.

Life has changed a lot since getting Mable and in some very unexpected ways. The most significant of which was meeting my partner. He and Mable are best pals and having his help really makes things easier in terms of day to day tasks. The love they have for each other and the way that it makes my life so much better, cannot really be explained. Our little family is my greatest adventure.